We recognize there is interest on our decision to temporarily remove The Great Bear from our library collection, pending a review of the book.

The Durham District School Board (DDSB) is committed to upholding Indigenous rights, including the self-determination of parents and families. We continue to engage with the local Indigenous community members who raised the initial concern about this book before sharing any more information publicly.

We also want to address the claims raised that the DDSB ignored or refused to engage in dialogue with Penguin Random House or the author. We shared this statement yesterday with the Toronto Star in response to those claims:

“The DDSB IT Department has had the chance to investigate this issue following our initial search which did not turn up anything from Penguin Random House. The e-mails sent from Penguin Random House were caught in our mail filter to protect against phishing attacks, as it appears that Penguin Random House does not currently have a valid SPF Record for their e-mail accounts, which is a standard level of e-mail protection. Therefore, the e-mails sent by Penguin Random House were not received by any of the individuals to whom they were addressed. 

The assertion by Penguin Random House that the DDSB has “refused to engage in dialogue” is not true. The DDSB has previously engaged with Forest of Reading on this topic and would have with Penguin Random House if the e-mails were received. We look forward to responding to Penguin Random House once the appropriate staff have had a chance to review their e-mails. We are not aware of Penguin Random House using any other methods, such as phone to contact the DDSB, which would have solved this communication problem.”

We will be providing an update on this topic next week. In the meantime, you can learn more about the recently adopted DDSB Indigenous Education Policy or Indigenous Education Procedure on Classroom Practices by clicking the hyperlinks.